Schlechtriem & Schwenzer: Commentary On The UN Convention On The International Sale of Goods (CISG) 4th Edition Ingeborg Schwenzer (Editor)

Schlechtriem & Schwenzer:
Commentary on the UN Convention on

the International Sale of Goods (CISG)
4th Edition Ingeborg Schwenzer
(Editor)
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Preface
Ingeborg Schwenzer
From: Schlechtriem & Schwenzer: Commentary on the UN Convention on

the International Sale of Goods (4th Edition)
Edited By: Ingeborg Schwenzer
Previous Edition (3 ed.)
Content type: Book content

Product: International Commercial Law [ICML]
Published in print: 24 March 2016
ISBN: 9780198723264
Six years have passed since the publication of the third edition of this Commentary. In the
meantime, the Commentary has served as a basis for numerous translations in other
languages, such as Spanish (2010, edited by Schwenzer/E Muñoz), Portuguese (2014,
edited by Schwenzer/Pereira Guimarães/Tripodi), and Turkish (2015, edited by Schwenzer/
Çağlayan Aksoy). Chinese, French, Russian, Polish, and Korean versions are currently being
prepared. Since the last edition, only one change has taken place in the authorship: Pascal
Hachem now also assumes responsibility for Articles 66‒70 and has rewritten them entirely.
As pointed out in the previous editions of this commentary, the CISG has enjoyed enduring
success and continues to do so. Today, the Convention has 84 Contracting States. Most
notably, in the meantime, Turkey and Brazil have joined the Convention (in 2011 and 2014,
respectively). It is further noteworthy that more and more small and developing countries
are becoming Member States (including Bahrain, Benin, Dominican Republic, Guyana,
Madagascar, Republic of Congo, San Marino, and Viet Nam). Moreover, one can hardly fail
to notice the growing abundance of academic research and analysis as published in
commentaries, treatises, monographs, articles, etc. More importantly, a vast number of
decisions have been rendered on key aspects of the Convention by State courts and, in
particular, by arbitral tribunals in almost all Contracting States. Most notably, more and
more awards rendered by CIETAC tribunals are published. It is the intention and purpose of
commentaries such as this to analyse and depict the distinct developments of the law in
order to ensure that the benefits of uniform law and legal security are not disrupted by
diverging interpretations in the various Contracting States. Therefore, particular effort has
been given to include and discuss literature and, in particular, case law from as many
jurisdictions as possible. The international discussion has been facilitated by access to
decisions and legal literature through various interconnected internet databases which
have been founded and maintained in different countries.1
From: Oxford Legal Research Library (http://olrl.ouplaw.com). (c) Oxford University Press, 2015. All Rights Reserved.
Subscriber: OUP-Reference Gratis Access; date: 15 September 2020
This present commentary reflects these developments. The increasing importance of
foreign case law for the interpretation of the CISG has been taken into account by adopting
a broader comparative focus. In this regard, the interpretation of the CISG based upon
domestic legal conceptions, as it is still practised by commentators and courts, must be
challenged. Due to the persuasiveness of court and arbitration decisions in practice, the
commentary attaches particular importance to these decisions and to the discussion
thereof. In order to facilitate access to such decisions, particularly to foreign case law, the
commentary provides citations referring to CISG-online.ch, an internet database which
offers instant, free and full access to all cited decisions on the CISG. Furthermore, the index
of cases enables the reader, using a reference to a known decision, to look up the relevant
comments in this book.(p. vi)
The task of editing and publishing such a commentary could never have been achieved
without the reliable, sometimes self-sacrificial, help of others. First of all, I would like to
thank my research assistant Ms Florence Jaeger, MLaw, for co-ordinating the project; I
would also like to thank my assistants, Ms Djamila Batache, Ms. Ref. iur. Ilka Beimel, Mr
Pascal Burgunder, Mr Till Maier-Lohmann, Mr Thomas Meyer, BLaw, Ms Meret Rehmann,
BLaw, Mr Daniele Simoniello, BLaw, and Mr Fernando Tafur, BLaw, for taking care of the
manuscripts and for carrying out the proofreading. The editor remains solely responsible
for any imperfections.
Finally, the editor is indebted to Oxford University Press for the professional and swift
handling of the publication process.
Basel, December 2015 Ingeborg Schwenzer
Footnotes:
1
Cf eg CISG-online.ch at www.globalsaleslaw.org/.
Contents—Summary


ISBN: 9780198723264
List of Contributors xii
List of Abbreviations xiii
Table of Cases xxxv
United Nations Convention on Contracts for the International Sale of Goods

(1980)—Full Text xcv
Introduction 1
Preamble 13
Part I: Sphere of Application and General Provisions 17
Chapter I: Sphere of Application 17

Chapter II: General Provisions 119
Part II: Formation of the Contract 223

Part III: Sale of Goods 416
Chapter I: General Provisions 416

Chapter II: Obligations of the Seller 514
Chapter III: Obligations of the Buyer 821
Chapter IV: Passing of Risk 950
Chapter V: Provisions Common to the Obligations of the Seller and
of the Buyer 1001
Part IV: Final Provisions 1240
United Nations Convention on the Limitation Period in the International Sale of

Goods (1974)—Full Text 1273
Commentary on the United Nations Convention on the Limitation Period
in the International Sale of Goods 1974 1288
Appendix I: Incoterms® 2010 1343

Appendix II: UNIDROIT Principles of International Commercial Contracts 2010 1387
Bibliography 1419
Index 1523
(p. viii)
Contents


ISBN: 9780198723264
List of Contributors xii
List of Abbreviations (Schwenzer) xiii
Table of Cases (Schwenzer) xxxv
United Nations Convention on Contracts for the International Sale of Goods

(1980)—Full Text xcv
Introduction (Schwenzer) 1
Preamble (Schwenzer ⁄ Hachem) 13
Part I. Sphere of Application and General Provisions 17
Chapter I. Sphere of Application 17

Arts 1–6 (Schwenzer ⁄ Hachem) 17
Chapter II. General Provisions 119

Art 7 (Schwenzer ⁄ Hachem) 119
Arts 8, 9 (Schmidt-Kessel) 143
Art 10 (Schwenzer ⁄ Hachem) 197
Arts 11–13 (Schmidt-Kessel) 203
Part II. Formation of the Contract 223

Arts 14–24 (Schroeter) 223
Part III. Sale of Goods 416
Chapter I. General Provisions 416

Art 25 (Schroeter) 416
Art 26 (Fountoulakis) 461
Art 28 (Müller-Chen) 482
Chapter II. Obligations of the Seller 514

Art 30 (Widmer Lüchinger) 514
Section I. Delivery of the goods and handing over of documents 520

Arts 31–34 (Widmer Lüchinger) 520
Section II. Conformity of the goods and third party claims 591
Arts 35–44 (Schwenzer) 591
Section III. Remedies for breach of contract by the seller 720

Arts 45–52 (Müller-Chen) 720 (p. x)
Chapter III. Obligations of the Buyer 821

Art 53 (Mohs) 821
Section I. Payment of the price 840

Arts 54–59 (Mohs) 840
Section II. Taking delivery 891

Art 60 (Mohs) 891
Section III. Remedies for breach of contract by the buyer 898

Arts 61–65 (Mohs) 898
Chapter IV. Passing of Risk 950

Arts 66–70 (Hachem) 950
Chapter V. Provisions Common to the Obligations of the Seller and

of the Buyer 1001
Section I. Anticipatory breach and instalment contracts 1001
Arts 71–73 (Fountoulakis) 1001
Section II. Damages 1057

Arts 74–77 (Schwenzer) 1057
Section III. Interest 1111

Art 78 (Bacher) 1111
Section IV. Exemptions 1128
Arts 79, 80 (Schwenzer) 1128
Section V. Effects of avoidance 1163

Arts 81–84 (Fountoulakis) 1163
Section VI. Preservation of the goods 1216

Arts 85–88 (Bacher) 1216
Part IV. Final Provisions 1240

Arts 89–101 (Schwenzer ⁄ Hachem) 1240
Witness Clause (Schwenzer ⁄ Hachem) 1272
United Nations Convention on the Limitation Period in the International Sale of

Goods (1974)—Full Text 1273
Commentary on the United Nations Convention on the Limitation Period
in the International Sale of Goods 1974 1288
Introduction (Müller-Chen) 1288
Preamble (Müller-Chen) 1289
Part I. Substantive Provisions 1290

Sphere of Application 1290
Arts 1–7 (Müller-Chen) 1290
The Duration and Commencement of the Limitation Period 1299
Arts 8–12 (Müller-Chen) 1299 (p. xi)
Cessation and Extension of the Limitation Period 1307

Modification of the Limitation Period by the Parties 1321
General Limit of the Limitation Period 1323
Consequences of the Expiration of the Limitation Period 1324
Calculation of the Period 1328
Arts 28, 29 (Müller-Chen) 1328
International Effect 1330
Part II. Implementation 1332

Part III. Declarations and Reservations 1333
Part IV. Final Clauses 1337

Appendix I: Incoterms® 2010 (Schwenzer) 1343

Appendix II: UNIDROIT Principles of International Commercial Contracts 2010
(Schwenzer) 1387
Bibliography (Schwenzer) 1419
Index (Schwenzer) 1523
List of Contributors


ISBN: 9780198723264
Dr iur Klaus Bacher, Judge, Bundesgerichtshof (Federal Supreme Court), Germany

—Articles 78, 85–88
Dr iur Christiana Fountoulakis, Professor, University of Fribourg, Switzerland

—Articles 26, 71–73, 81–84
Dr iur Pascal Hachem ACIArb, Attorney at Law, Lecturer, University of Basel,

Switzerland
—Preamble, Articles 1–7, 10 (jointly with Dr Schwenzer); Articles 66–70; Articles 89–
101 (jointly with Dr Schwenzer); Witness Clause (jointly with Dr Schwenzer)
Dr iur Florian Mohs LLM (Victoria University of Wellington), Attorney at Law,

Zurich, Switzerland
—Articles 53–65
Dr iur Markus Müller-Chen, Professor, University of St Gallen, Switzerland,

Attorney at Law
—Articles 28, 45–52, Limitation Convention
Dr iur Martin Schmidt-Kessel, Professor, University of Bayreuth, Germany

—Articles 8, 9; Articles 11–13
Dr iur Ulrich G Schroeter, Professor, University of Mannheim, Germany

—Articles 14–25, 27, 29
Dr iur Ingeborg Schwenzer LLM (UC Berkeley), Professor, University of Basel,
Switzerland; Dean, Swiss International Law School, Switzerland
—Introduction; Preamble, Articles 1–7, 10 (jointly with Dr Hachem); Articles 35–44,
74–77, 79, 80; Articles 89–101 (jointly with Dr Hachem); Witness Clause (jointly with
Dr Hachem); general editorship
Dr iur Corinne Widmer Lüchinger, Professor, University of Basel, Switzerland,

Attorney at Law
—Articles 30–34
List of Abbreviations


ISBN: 9780198723264
A 2d
Atlantic Reporter, Second Series (USA)
aM
(Frankfurt) am Main (Germany)
A Pac L Rev
Asia Pacific Law Review (USA)
AyD
Actualidad y Derecho (Spain)
A-A Leg Cons Comm R

Asian-African Legal Consultative Committee Report
ABA
American Bar Association
ABAJ
American Bar Association Journal (USA)
ABGB
Allgemeines Bürgerliches Gesetzbuch of 1 June 1811 (Austria)
AbzG
Gesetz betreffend die Abzahlungsgeschäfte (Germany)
AC
Appeal Cases (Great Britain)
AcP
Archiv für die civilistische Praxis (Germany)
Act Jur Hung

Acta Juridica Academiae Scientiarum Hungaricae (Hungary)
Actes
Conférence diplomatique sur l’Unification du droit en matière de la vente
internationale, Den Haag, 2–25 April 1964, Actes et Documents de la Conférence, Bd.
I: Actes, Ministère de la Justice des Pays-Bas (ed), Den Haag: Imprimerie Nationale
(1966)
ADB 1963
Allgemeine Deutsche Binnen-Transportversicherungs-Bedingungen of 1963
(Germany)
ADC
Anuario de Derecho Civil (Spain)
ADHGB
Allgemeines Deutsches Handelsgesetzbuch of 1861 (Germany)
ADS Güterversicherung
Allgemeine Deutsche Seeversicherungsbedingungen of 1919 (version of 1984;
Germany)
ADSp
Allgemeine Deutsche Spediteurbedingungen of 1 January 2003, released on
www.spediteure.de (Germany)
Adv
The Advocate (Canada)
Advoc Q
The Advocates’ Quarterly (Canada)
Afr J Int’l L
African Journal of International Law (Great Britain)
AG
Amtsgericht (German District Court)
AGBG
Gesetz zur Regelung des Rechts der Allgemeinen Geschäftsbedingun-gen of 9
December 1976 (Germany)
AGer
Amtsgericht (Swiss District Court)
AJP
Aktuelle Juristische Praxis (Switzerland)
ALB/RGW
Allgemeine Bedingungen für die Warenlieferungen zwischen den Organisationen der
Mitgliedsländer des Rates für gegenseitige Wirtschaftshilfe of 1979 (GDR)
ALI
American Law Institute (USA)
ALI-ABA
American Law Institute-American Bar Association (USA)
All E R
All England Law Reports (Great Britain)
Am Bus L J
American Business Law Journal (USA)
Am For L Assn Newsletter

American Foreign Law Association Newsletter (USA)
Am J Comp L
American Journal of Comparative Law (USA)
Am J Int’l L
American Journal of International Law (USA)
Am Rev Int’l Arb

American Review of International Arbitration (USA)
An Jur
Anuario jurídico (Mexico)(p. xiv)
Ann dr mar & aero-spat

Annuaire de droit maritime et aero-spatiale (France)
Ann Genova
Annuario Genova (Italy)
AnwBl
Anwaltsblatt (Germany)
App
Corte d’Appello (Italian Court of Appeal)
App Ct
Appellate Court
AppGer
Appellationsgericht (Swiss Court of Appeals)
approx
approximately
Arab LQ
Arab Law Quarterly (Netherlands)
Arb
Arbitration
Arb Int’l
Arbitration International (USA)
Arb J
The Arbitration Journal (USA)
Arch iur Cracov

Archivum iuridicum Cracoviense (Poland)
Ariz J Int’l & Comp L

Arizona Journal of International and Comparative Law (USA)
Ariz J Int’l L
Arizona Journal of International Law (USA)
Art(s)
Article(s)
ASA
Swiss Arbitration Association
ASA Bull
ASA Bulletin (Switzerland)
ASIL Proc
American Society of International Law Proceedings
Ass plén
Cour de Cassation, Assemblée plénière (France)
Ass’n
Association
Ateneo L J
Ateneo Law Journal (Philippines)
AUDCG
Acte Uniform Relatif au Droit Commercial Général (OHADA)
Aust Bus L Rev

Australian Business Law Review
Aust L J
The Australian Law Journal
AW
DDR-Außenwirtschaft. Information and documents, published by the Zentrum für
Information & Dokumentation für Außenwirtschaft, Beilage (Supplement) 1: Recht im
Außenhandel (GDR)
AW-Prax
Außenwirtschafliche Praxis, Zeitschrift für Außenwirtschaft in Recht und Praxis
(Germany)
AWD
Außenwirtschaftsdienst of Der Betriebsberater, see RIW
B2B
business to business
B2C
business to consumer
Bankr D Or
Bankruptcy District Court for the District of Oregon
Bankr M D Fla
Bankruptcy District Court for the Middle District of Florida (USA)
BAnz
Bundesanzeiger (Germany)
BB
Der Betriebsberater (Germany)
BBJ
Boston Bar Journal (USA)
BBl
Bundesblatt (Switzerland)
BCSC
British Columbia Supreme Court (Canada)
Bd(e)
Band/Bände (volume[s])
BeckRS
Beck-Rechtsprechung (Germany)
Beil
Beilage (Supplement)
Belgrade L Rev
Belgrade Law Review (Serbia)
BezGer
Bezirksgericht (Austrian/Swiss district court)
BGB
Bürgerliches Gesetzbuch (Germany)
BGB-InfoV
Verordnung über Informations- und Nachweispflichten nach bürgerlichem Recht of 2
January 2002 (Germany)
BGBl
Bundesgesetzblatt (Germany)
BGE
Entscheidungen des Schweizerischen Bundesgerichts (Switzerland)
BGer
Bundesgericht (Swiss Federal Supreme Court)(p. xv)
BGH
Bundesgerichtshof (German Federal Supreme Court)
BGHZ
Entscheidungen des Bundesgerichtshofes in Zivilsachen (Germany)
BJM
Basler Juristische Mitteilungen (Switzerland)
BlgNR
Beilagen zu den Stenographischen Protokollen des Nationalrats (Austria)
BMJ
Bundesministerium der Justiz (Germany)
Bol mex der comp
Boletín Méxicano de Derecho Comparado (Mexico)
BR/DC
Baurecht/Droit de la construction; Mitteilungen zum privaten und öffentlichen
Baurecht, Seminar für Schweizerisches Baurecht, Universität Freiburg (Switzerland)
BR-Drs
Bundesrats-Drucksache (Switzerland)
Braz J Int’l L
Brazilian Journal of International Law (Brazil)
Brigham Young U L Rev

Brigham Young University Law Review (USA) (see also BYU LRev)
Brooklyn J Int’l L
Brooklyn Journal of International Law (USA)
Brussels Convention
European Convention on Jurisdiction and the Enforcement of Judgments in Civil and
Commercial Matters (see also EuGVÜ)
Brussels Regulation
Council Regulation (EC) No 44/2001 of 22 December 2000 on jurisdiction and the
recognition and enforcement of judgments in civil and commercial matter (see also
EuGVO)
BT
Bundestag (Germany)
BT-Drs
Bundestags-Drucksache (Germany)
BTTA
Bulgarska turgosko-promishlena palata (Bulgarian chamber of commerce and
industry)
Buff L Rev
Buffalo Law Review (USA)
Bull Civ
Bulletin des arrêts de la Cour de Cassation, Chambres civiles (France)
Bull Transp Int Ferrov

Bulletin des Transports Internationaux Ferroviaires (Switzerland)
Bus Law
The Business Lawyer (USA)
BW
Burgerlijk Wetboek of 2 July 1986 (Netherlands)
BYU L Rev
Brigham Young University Law Review (USA) (see also Brigham Young U L Rev)
C consom
Code de la consommation (France)
CDC
Cuadernos de Derecho y Comercio (Spain)
C&F
cost and freight (ICC Incoterms®)
CA
Court of Appeal(s)/Cour d’appel (Belgian/French Court of Appeal)/Corte d’Appello
(Italian Court of Appeal)
CAEM
Conseil d’assistance économique mutuelle
Cah de Dr
Les Cahiers de Droit (Canada)
Cah jur fisc exp

Cahiers juridiques et fiscaux de l’exportation (France)
Calif West Int’l L J

California Western International Law Journal (USA)
Cambridge L J
Cambridge Law Journal (Great Britain)
Cambridge Lect
The Cambridge Lectures (Canada)
Can Bus L J
Canadian Business Law Journal
Can Counc Int’l L

Canadian Council on International Law
Can Int’l
Canadian International Lawyer (Canada)
Can-US L J
Canada–United States Law Journal
Cardozo J Conflict Resol
Cardozo Journal of Conflict Resolution (USA)
Cardozo J Int’l & Comp L

Cardozo Journal of International and Comparative Law (USA)
Cass
La Suprema Corte di Cassazione (Italian Court of Cassation)
Cass civ 1ère

Cour de Cassation, Première Chambre civile (First Civil Chamber of the French Court
of Cassation)(p. xvi)
Cass civ 2ème

Cour de Cassation, Deuxième Chambre civile (Second Civil Chamber of the French
Court of Cassation)
Cass civ 3ème

Cour de Cassation, Troisième Chambre civile (Third Civil Chamber of the French
Court of Cassation)
Cass com
Cour de Cassation, Chambre civile, Section Commerciale (Commercial Chamber of
the French Court of Cassation)
Cass req
Cour de Cassation (Chambre des requêtes, France)
Cc
Code civil (France)/Codice civile (Italy)/Código civil (Spain et al)
CC Fasc
periodo cronologico delle carte contenute nel fascicolo (Italy)
CCI
Chamber of Commerce and Industry/Chambre de Commerce Internationale Paris (see
also ICC)
CCI Int Ct Arb

International Arbitration Court attached to the Chamber of Commerce and Industry
Ccom
Code de Commerce (France)/Código de Comercio (Spain et al)
CCP
Civil code of procedure (Canada)
CD/Cah de Dr
Les Cahiers de Droit (Canada)
CESL
Common European Sales Law
cf
confer
CFR
cost and freight (ICC Incoterms®)
cGMP
see GMP
Ch D
Law Reports, Chancery Division (Great Britain)
Chan Prot
Protocol Amending the Convention on the Limitation Period in the International Sale
of Goods of 4 April 1980 (A/CONF. 97/18, annex II), YB XI (1980), 162–164
chap
chapter
China Bus Rev

China Business Review (USA)
China L R
China Law Reporter (USA)
Chron
Chronique (France)
cic
culpa in contrahendo
CIETAC
China International Economic and Trade Arbitration Commission
CIF
cost, insurance, freight (ICC Incoterms®)
CIM
Convention internationale concernant le transport des marchandises par chemins de
fer/International Convention on the Carriage of Goods by Rail
CIP
carriage and insurance paid to (ICC Incoterms®)
Cir
Federal Court of Appeals (USA)
CISG
United Nations Convention on Contracts for the International Sale of Goods of 11
April 1980
CISG Austria
Internet database of Austrian decisions on the CISG (see Bibliography)
CISG Belgium
Internet database of Belgian decisions on the CISG, University of Leuven (see
Bibliography)
CISG France
CISG France, Internet database of French decisions on the CISG, University of
Saarbrücken (see Bibliography)
CISG Pace
CISG W3 Database, Internet database, Pace University School of Law (see
Bibliography)
CISG Rev
Review of the Convention on Contracts for the International Sale of Goods (CISG)
(USA/Germany)
CISG Spain
CISG Spain and Latin America, Internet Database, Universidad Carlos III Madrid (see
Bibliography)
CISG-AC
Advisory Council of the Vienna Convention on Contracts for the International Sale of
Goods (www.cisgac.com)
CISG-online
Internet database on CISG decisions and materials, University of Basel (see
Bibliography)
Civ
Cour de Cassation, Chambre civile (Civil Chamber of the French Court of Cassation)
(p. xvii)
CLJ
Cambridge Law Journal
CLOUT
Case Law on UNCITRAL Texts (see Bibliography)
CLP
Current Legal Problems (Great Britain)
CLR
Commonwealth Law Reports (Australia)
CMEA
Council of Mutual Economic Assistance
CMR
Convention relative au Contrat de transport international de marchandises par route/
Convention on the Contract for the International Carriage of Goods by Road (Geneva,
19 May 1956)
Co
Company
CO
Code of Obligations
COD
cash on delivery (ICC Incoterms®)
COFREUROP
Conditions for the national and international trade in fruit and vegetables whether
fresh, frozen or intended for industrial use of October 1999 (see www.dfhv.de)
Colo Law
The Colorado Lawyer (USA)
Colum J Transnat’l L
Columbia Journal of Transnational Law (USA)
Colum L Rev
Columbia Law Review (USA)
COM
Document of the European Commission intended for communication to the public
Com int Ban

Comercio internacional Banamex (Mexico)
Com L J
Commercial Law Journal (USA)
Comp & Int’l L J S Afr

Comparative and International Law Journal of Southern Africa
Comp L J
Comparative Law Journal
Comp L Y B
Comparative Law Yearbook (USA)
Compromex
Comisión para la Protección del Comercio Exterior de México (Mexican Commission
for the Protection of Foreign Trade)
Computer L J
Computer Law Journal (USA)
Computer Law
The Computer Lawyer (USA)
Conf
Conference
Conn B J
Connecticut Bar Journal (USA)
Cons Fin L Q R
Consumer Finance Law Quarterly Report (USA)
Contemp Trends
Contemporary Trends (Great Britain)
Contr Imp
Contratto e Impresa (Italy)
Contr Imp E
Contratto e Impresa, Europa (Italy)
Cornell Int’l L J
Cornell International Law Journal (USA)
Cornell L Rev
Cornell Law Review (USA)
Corp
Corporation
Corr giur
Corriere giuridico (Italy)
COTIF
Convention relative aux transports internationaux ferroviaires/Convention concerning
International Carriage by Rail of 5 May 1980
CPC
Codice di Procedura Civile (Italy)/Code de Procedure Civile (cf NCPC; France)
CPN
Cours de perfectionnement du notariat (France)
CPT
Carriage Paid To (ICC Incoterms®)
CR
Computer und Recht (Germany)
Ct
Court
Ct Int’l Trade
United States Court of International Trade
CTO
Combined Transport Operator
Cu der int
Curso de Derecho Internacional (USA)
Cum L Rev
Cumberland Law Review (USA)
CVIM
Convention de Vienne sur la vente internationale de marchandises (see CISG)(p. xviii)
D
Recueil Dalloz Sirey (France)
D Chron
Recueil Dalloz Sirey, Chronique (France)
D Del
US District Court, District of Delaware
D IR
Recueil Dalloz Sirey, Informations Rapides (France)
D Kan
US District Court, District of Kansas
DMF
Le Droit maritime français (France)
D Minn
US District Court, District of Minnesota
D NJ
US District Court, District of New Jersey
DP
Dalloz, Recueil périodique et critique mensuel (before 1941; France)
D RI
US District Court, District of Rhode Island
D Somm
Recueil Dalloz Sirey, Sommaires Commentés (France)
DAF
delivered at frontier (ICC Incoterms®)
Das Recht
Das Recht, Supplement to Zentralblatt für Handelsrecht (Germany)
DB
Der Betrieb (Germany)
DCFR
Principles, Definitions and Model Rules of European Privat Law—Draft Common
Frame of Reference
DDP
delivered duty paid (ICC Incoterms®)
DDR-AW/RiA
DDR-Außenwirtschaft, Supplement ‘Recht im Außenhandel’
DDU
delivered duty unpaid (ICC Incoterms®)
Defensor Legis
Defensor Legis (Finland)
Del Law
Delaware Lawyer (USA)
Denkschrift
Denkschrift der deutschen Bundesregierung zum Entwurf eines Gesetzes zu dem
Übereinkommen der Vereinten Nationen vom 11. April 1980 über Verträge über den
internationalen Warenkauf (memorandum of the Government of the Federal Republic
of Germany regarding the draft law on the CISG) (see Bibliography)
Denkschrift zum EKG

Denkschrift der deutschen Bunderegierung zu den internationalen
Kaufrechtsübereinkommen (memorandum of the Government of the Federal Republic
of Germany regarding ULF and ULIS) (see Bibliography)
DEQ
delivered ex quay (ICC Incoterms®)
Der com int
Derecho del comercio internacional (Columbia)
Der comp
Derecho comparado (Argentina)
Der neg
Derecho de los negocios (Mexico)
DES
delivered ex ship (ICC Incoterms®)
DH
Dalloz, Recueil hebdomadaire de jurisprudence (1924–1940) (France)
Dick J Int’l L
Dickinson Journal of International Law (USA)
Dick L Rev
Dickinson Law Review
Dig Com L
Digest of Commercial Laws of the World (USA)
DIHT
Deutscher Industrie- und Handelstag/German Association of Chambers of Commerce
and Industry
Dir
Directive
Dir com int

Diritto del Commercio Internazionale (Italy)
Dir comun sc int

Diritto Comunitario e degli scambi Internazionale (Italy)
Diss
Dissertation
Dist
District (USA)
Doc
Conférence diplomatique sur l’Unification du droit en matière de la vente
internationale, Den Haag, 2–25 April 1964, Actes et Documents de la Conférence, Bd.
II: Documents, Ministère de la Justice des Pays-Bas (ed), Den Haag: Imprimerie
Nationale (1966)
Doc dir comp
Documentacao e Direito Comparado (Portugal)
DÖV
Die Öffentliche Verwaltung (Germany)/public administration(p. xix)
DR
Deutsches Recht/German Law (1931–1945)
Dr prat com int

Droit et pratique du commerce international/International Trade Law and Practice
(Paris, New York)
Drake L Rev
Drake Law Review (USA)
DTI
Department of Trade and Industry
DtZ
Deutsch-Deutsche Rechts-Zeitschrift (Germany)
DtZ-Inf
Informationsbeilage zur Deutsch-Deutschen Rechts-Zeitschrift (Supplement to DtZ)
Duq L Rev
Duquesne Law Review (USA)
DZWir
Deutsche Zeitschrift für Wirtschaftsrecht
E
Entwurf (draft)
E 1958
1958 Draft of ULF
E 1976
see 1976 Geneva Draft
E 1977
see 1977 New York Draft
E 1978
see 1978 New York Draft
E-Commerce Dir
Directive 2000/31/EC of the European Parliament and of the Council of 8 June 2000
on certain legal aspects of information society services, in particular electronic
commerce, in the Internal Market
eadem
the same person, feminine (Latin)
EAG
Einheitliches Gesetz über den Abschluß von internationalen Kaufverträgen über
bewegliche Sachen of 17 July 1973 (see ULF)
EC
European Community
ECB
European Central Bank
ECE
Economic Commission for Europe
ECHR
European Convention on Human Rights (more formally, European Convention for the
Protection of Human Rights and Fundamental Freedoms)
ECJ
Court of Justice of the European Communities
ecolex
ecolex (Austria)
ECR
European Court Reports
ED
Eastern District
ED Ark, WD
US District Court, Eastern District of Arkansas, Western Division
ED Ky
US District Court, Eastern District of Kentucky
ED La
US District Court, Eastern District of Louisiana
ED Mich
US District Court, Eastern District of Michigan
ED Mo
US District Court, Eastern District of Missouri
ED NY
US District Court, Eastern District of New York
ED Pa
US District Court, Eastern District of Pennsylvania
ED Ten
US District Court, Eastern District of Tennessee
ed(s)
editor(s)/edition
EDI
Electronic Data Interchange
edn(s)
edition(s)
EEC
European Economic Community
eg
exempli gratia (for example) (Latin)
EG
Europäische Gemeinschaft/European Community (see EC)
EGBGB
Einführungsgesetz zum Bürgerlichen Gesetzbuch (Introductory Law of the German
Civil Code)
EJCCL
European Journal of Commercial Contract Law
EJLR
European Journal of Law Reform
EKG
Einheitliches Gesetz über den internationalen Kauf beweglicher Sachen of 1 July 1964
(see ULIS)(p. xx)
El Derecho
El Derecho (Argentina)
El Foro
El Foro (Mexico)
Another random document with
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The Project Gutenberg eBook of The Navy eternal
This ebook is for the use of anyone anywhere in the United States and
most other parts of the world at no cost and with almost no restrictions
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this eBook.
Title: The Navy eternal

which is the Navy-that-Floats, the Navy-that-Flies and the Navy-
under-the-Sea
Author: Bartimeus
Illustrator: Douglas Swale
Release date: September 2, 2023 [eBook #71548]
Language: English
Original publication: London: Hodder and Stoughton, 1918
Credits: Chuck Greif and the Online Distributed Proofreading Team at

https://www.pgdp.net (This file was produced from images
generously made available by The Internet Archive)
*** START OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK THE NAVY

ETERNAL ***
THE NAVY ETERNAL
WORKS BY THE SAME AUTHOR

NAVAL OCCASIONS
A TALL SHIP
THE LONG TRICK
The Navy Eternal

WHICH IS
THE NAVY-THAT-FLOATS
THE NAVY-THAT-FLIES
AND THE NAVY-UNDER-THE-SEA
BY
“BARTIMEUS”
Drawings by DOUGLAS SWALE

HODDER AND STOUGHTON
LONDON NEW YORK TORONTO
Printed in Great Britain by Hazell, Watson & Viney, Ld.,

London and Aylesbury.
DEDICATED TO
Captain
GORDON CAMPBELL, V.C., D.S.O.,
Royal Navy.
CONTENTS
PAGE
PROLOGUE 17
CHAPTER I
“USQUE AB OVO” 23
CHAPTER II
IN THE TWILIGHT 48
CHAPTER III
THE NAVY-THAT-FLIES 89
CHAPTER IV
“LEST WE FORGET” 118
CHAPTER V
THE FEET OF THE YOUNG MEN 156
CHAPTER VI
GIPSIES OF THE SEA 164
CHAPTER VII
THE DAY--AND THE MORNING AFTER 180
CHAPTER VIII
THE NAVY-UNDER-THE-SEA 190
CHAPTER IX
THE PORT LOOK-OUT 213
CHAPTER X
THE SURVIVOR 220
CHAPTER XI
THE Nth BATTLE SQUADRON 237
CHAPTER XII
MYSTERY 257
CHAPTER XIII
THE SPIRIT OF THE FLEET 273
CHAPTER XIV
THE EPIC OF ST. GEORGE’S DAY, 1918 289
EPILOGUE 308
ILLUSTRATIONS
PAGE
“USQUE AB OVO” 23
HEAVY METAL 48
A STRIKING FORCE 55
THE LEFT FLANK 63
THE HUNT 69
OVERDUE 76
“TUPPENCE APIECE” 83
THE NAVY-THAT-FLIES 89
THE DOVER PATROL 143
THE FEET OF THE YOUNG MEN 163
GIPSIES OF THE SEA 164
THE PORT LOOK-OUT 213
THE SURVIVOR 220
THE Nᵀᴴ BATTLE SQUADRON 237
THE SPIRIT OF THE FLEET—“GATE, THERE! GATE!” 273
THE EPIC OF ST. GEORGE’S DAY, 1918 289
EPILOGUE 308
FINIS 331
PROLOGUE
Anyone familiar with the River Dart knows the Mill Creek. The hills on either side
slope steeply down to the edge of the water, oak and beech and elm clustering thick
on the one hand, red plough, green shoots, and golden corn-fields alternating on the
other through all the changing seasons.
The creek is tidal, transformed at half-flood into a fair expanse of shimmering
water; at low tide, however, it dwindles to a score of meagre channels winding
tortuously through whale-backed mudbanks, the haunt of scurrying crabs and
meditative heron.
Here, one afternoon in midsummer some dozen years ago, came a gig (or, in
local parlance, a “blue-boat”) manned by seven flannel-clad cadets from the Naval
College. Six sat on the thwarts pulling lazily against the last of the ebb. The
seventh sat in the stern, with the yoke-lines over his shoulders, refreshing himself
with cherries out of a bag.
As they approached the shelving mudbanks, purple in the afternoon sunlight,
the figure in the bows boated his oar and began to sound cautiously with his
boathook. The remaining five oarsmen glanced back over their shoulders and
continued paddling. The helmsman smiled tolerantly, as a man might smile at the
conceits of childhood, but refrained from speech. They all knew the weakness of
the bowman for dabbling in mud.
“Half a point to port!” said the slim form wielding the dripping boathook. “I can
see the channel now.... Steady as you go!” A minute later the boat slid into the
main channel and the crew drew in their oars, punting their narrow craft between
the banks of ooze. None of them spoke, save the bowman, and he only at rare
intervals, flinging back a curt direction to the helmsman over his shoulder.
For half an hour they navigated the channels winding up the valley, and came at
length to a crumbling stone quay beside the ruin of a mill. Ferns grew in the
interstices of the old brickwork, and a great peace brooded over the silent wood
that towered behind. They made the boat fast there; and because boats and the sea
were things as yet half-unknown and wholly attractive, none of them attempted to
land. Instead, with coats rolled up as pillows and their straw hats tilted over their
eyes, the seven made themselves comfortable as only naval cadets could in such
cramped surroundings, and from under the thwarts each one drew a paper bag and
a bottle of lemonade.
“Dead low water,” said Number 1 (the bow oar) presently. “We shall have a
young flood against us going back; but then there’s no chance of getting stuck on
the mud.” He drew a bunch of keys from his pocket and proceeded to take careful
soundings round the boat, using the keys as a sinker and the lanyard as a lead-line.
“Oh, shut up about your everlasting tides,” said Number 2, “and keep quiet; I
want to sleep.”
“They interest me,” replied Number 1 simply. “I shall be a navigator, I think.”
“You’d better go in for submarines,” said Number 4, applying himself to his
bottle of fizzing beverage. “Plenty of poking about mudbanks in them if it interests
you. One of the first we ever had stuck in the mud one day and never came up
again.”
“P’raps I shall,” admitted the bow. “In fact I shouldn’t be surprised if I did go in
for submarining.”
Number 3 was lying on his back on the thwart, his head resting on the gunwale.
“They’ll never come to anything,” he said. “The submarine’s a failure.” His eyes
followed the flight of a white-winged gull that circled with outstretched wings far
above their heads. “No. It’s going to be in the air, when we have a war. I’m all for
flying machines....” He was silent awhile meditating, then turned his head quickly.
“Bombs!” he said. “Fancy being able to drop bombs all over an enemy’s country.”
“You couldn’t do it,” said Number 2. “You’d go killing women and civilians.
They’d never let you.”
“Who?” demanded the prospective aviator, his enthusiasm rather damped.
“Who’d stop me?”
“International Law,” cut in the coxswain quickly. “Conventions and all that....
Why, there’d be no limit to anything if it weren’t for international law. An enemy
could go off in his beastly submarine and paralyse the trade routes.”
“Paralyse ’em—how?” inquired the bow man.
“Just torpedoing ’em, of course, you ass.”
“What, merchant ships?”
The jurist nodded.
“But no one could do that. I mean you’d never get a naval officer to do that,
international law or no international law. That ’ud be piracy—like those fellows at
Algiers. ’Member the lecture last week?”
“I don’t mean we’d do it,” conceded the coxswain. “But some nations might.”
The idealist shook his head. “No naval officer would,” he repeated stoutly,
“whatever his nationality.”
“The surface of the sea’s good enough for me,” chipped in No. 2. “I don’t want
to bomb women or torpedo merchant ships. I’m going to be captain of a destroyer.”
He raised his head. “Thirty knots at night, my boy!... Upper-deck torpedo tubes and
all that....”
“I’d blow you out of the water with a 12-inch gun,” said Number 5, speaking
for the first time, and laying aside a magazine. “Gunnery is going to save this
country if ever we have a war. That’s why gunnery lieutenants get promoted
quickly—my governor told me so.”
“Did he?” said the stroke oar. “He’s wrong. You can only fire big guns from big
ships, and you know what happened to big ships in the Russo-Japanese war.”
“What?” inquired the visionary coldly.
“Mines. Big ships can’t move when there are mines about.”
“We don’t use mines any longer,” said the coxswain, crumpling up his empty
bag and throwing it over the side. It floated slowly past the boat towards the head
of the valley. “They’re not considered sporting. ’Sides, even if you could, you can
always countermine, and sweep ’em up. My brother went through a course in the
Mediterranean once—place called Platea. I remember him telling me about it.”
The stroke oar sat upright and glanced the length of the boat. “Wouldn’t it be a
rum thing,” he said, “if there was a war some day and we were all in it.” He ticked
off their names on his fingers: “Submarine, aeroplane, destroyer, minelayer,
minesweeper, battleship——” He paused. “I’d like to be in a cruiser,” he said. “A
big cruiser scouting ahead of the Fleet. You’d get more excitement there than
anywhere.” His voice deepened to a sudden note of triumph. “It ’ud be the
forefront of the battle.”
“Then we’d all meet afterwards,” said Number 2, “and have a blow-out
somewhere ashore and talk about our experiences. Wouldn’t that be topping?”
The bow oar sat with his eyes on the crumpled paper bag that floated up-stream,
shading them against the glow of the sun turning all the creeks into molten gold.
“Those of us that were left,” he said dreamily. “Tide’s turned.... We’d better think
about getting back.”
CHAPTER I
“USQUE AB OVO”
Reminiscences
of those days
“in the distance
enchanted”
never come in
an orderly
procession
according to
the original
sequence of
events. Some,
for reasons
quite
inexplicable,
jostle their way
to the fore
readily enough.
Others, dim
and elusive,
hover in the
background,
and only
respond to the
lure of firelight
and tobacco
smoke
ascending
incense-wise
from the depths
of the arm-
chair.
Sooner or
later, though,
they can all be
caught and held for the moment needed to record them. The difficulty is to know
where to start....
Harker is foremost among the “thrusters” in the surging crowd of memories of
the old Britannia days. Harker, with his piercing, rather melancholy eyes, his black
beard and tattooed wrists, and his air of implacable ferocity that for months
succeeded in concealing from his term a heart as tender as a woman’s.
His name was not actually Harker, of course; but he is probably still alive, and
even retired chief petty officers of the Royal Navy have their susceptibilities. He
was a term C.P.O.—mentor, wet-nurse, “sea-daddy,” the outward and visible
embodiment of Naval Discipline to sixty-odd naval cadets who yesterday were raw
schoolboys and to-day wear the King’s uniform and eke brass buttons—a transition
unhinging enough to more matured souls than those of his charges.
How he succeeded in conveying within the space of the first evening the
exceedingly unfamiliar routine of training-ship life, the art of turning into a
hammock, the necessity for keeping their chests locked, the majesty of the term
lieutenant and the omnipotence of the chief cadet captains, to sixty bewildered
fifteen-year-olds, only he knows.
Yet he harried none; they were conscious of him as a flock of disconcerted
sheep are aware of a wise collie. His voice was never still: it was to be presumed
that he slept at some mysterious time during the twenty-four hours, and yet his
square, compact form seemed to be always drifting about at all hours of the day
and night. Even when a hapless wight (in the throes of nightmare) tipped bodily out
of his hammock on to the deck the first night, it was Harker who appeared
noiselessly out of the shadows to tuck him in again.
Their names he had pat within twenty-four hours; this tightened his grip of the
term instantly, but it also caused him to be regarded as scarcely canny. Indeed, it
was disconcerting enough to regard yourself one moment as an insignificant and
unknown unit among 250 others, and in this comfortable reflection to lean in a
dégagé attitude against the white paintwork (one of the seven deadly sins): then to
hear admonition and your name, coupled together like chain-shot, ring out along
the crowded main-deck. Harker had seen you.
There were other C.P.O.’s on board: each term owned one. But they were, by
comparison with Harker, sorry fellows. One was reputed to be given to beating the
big drum at Salvation Army meetings ashore, garbed, moreover, in a scarlet jersey.
Hotly his term denied it, but the story was stamped with the unimpeachable
authority of the boatswain’s mate of the lower-deck: a godless seaman,
conversation with whom, being of a spicy and anecdotal nature, was forbidden.
Another was admittedly of a good enough heart, but a sentimentalist, and
consequently to be despised. On the occasion of the chastisement of an evil-doer,
his was the arm chosen to administer the strokes with all the pomp and
circumstance of an official execution. He laid the strokes on well and truly—that
much the victim himself admitted. But when he turned from his duty his eyes were
observed to have tears in them. His term had in consequence to adopt an apologetic
manner for a considerable time afterwards.
It was a similar scene, but one in which Harker played the Lord High
Executioner, that must here be recorded. The setting alone was sufficient to strike
awe and even terror into the spectator’s hearts. And now, after the lapse of years,
recalling the circumstances of that harrowing quarter of an hour, it is doubtful
whether there was not just some such motive behind the grim circumstance that led
up to the painful consummation.
The scene was the orlop-deck. What light there was came in through the open
gunports, slanting upwards off the water. Not cheering sunlight, you understand,
but a greenish sickly gleam that struggled ineffectually with the shadows clinging
like vampires among the low oak beams overhead.
The victim’s term were fallen-in in a hollow square about the horse—a block of
wood supported on short legs, with ring-bolts and canvas straps hanging from each
corner. Then there came a pause. Possibly the captain had not finished his
breakfast; or perhaps Harker had for once made a mistake and got his term there
too early. But for the space of several minutes (or weeks, or years) the term stood
in shuddering contemplation of this engine.
Then one of the spectators, the victim of either an over-rich imagination or an
acutely sensitive conscience, dramatically fainted and was borne forth. After that
things began to happen. The malefactor appeared, accompanied by Harker. The
captain, the term lieutenant, and (a thrill ran through the on-lookers) the surgeon
followed. It was half-expected that the chaplain would also join the group and
administer ghostly consolation to the culprit, who, it must be reluctantly admitted,
looked rather pleased with himself.
His offence was not one to alienate him from the hearts of his fellows. If
memory serves aright, he had been overheard to refer to his late crammer in terms
that may or may not have been just, but were certainly not the way a little
gentleman should talk. But his term—or most of them—were still smarting under
the recollections of crammers’ methods and were disposed to regard the
delinquent’s lapse rather more as a pardonable ebullition of feeling than a breach of
morality. In short he was a bit of a hero.
“Chief Petty Officer Harker,” said the stern voice of the term lieutenant, “do
your duty.” The harrowing preliminaries completed, Chief Petty Officer Harker did
it, as was to be expected of him, uncommonly well.
The victim took it, as was also to be expected of him, uncommonly well. It was
not long before these lines were written that he was called upon to meet a sterner
and his last ordeal. The pity is that no spectator can bear testimony to the worthier
courage with which he must have met it.
Harker it was who smelt out, like a Zulu witch-doctor, the grass snake and
dormouse that lived a life of communistic ease and reflection in the washing till of
someone’s sea-chest. Harker’s the suspicious mind that led to official “ruxes” of
private tills, and the confiscation of meerschaum pipes, Turkish cigarettes, and
other contraband. Yet all this without any effect of espionage.
The nearest approach to active espionage that Harker permitted himself was
hovering in the vicinity of the gangway when the terms were landed for daily
recreation. The law of the Medes and Persians had it that during cold weather all
cadets not playing games must land wearing a particularly despicable form of
under-garment: a woolly and tucked-into-the-socks abomination that the soul of
every right-minded cadet revolted from. As the procession passed under the low
gangway on its way to the launches alongside, Harker, lurking in the vicinity,
would suddenly pounce upon a suspect.
“ ’Ave we got our DRAWERS on, Mr. So-and-so?” came the merciless query. The
progress of the procession was arrested while Mr. So-and-so racked his brains for
some suitable parry to this very leading question. A damning negative having
eventually been extorted, the underclad one was hauled from the ranks and given
three minutes in which to get to his chest, extract from his wardrobe the garment
that found such high favour in Olympian eyes, put it on, and rejoin the tail of the
procession. Thus a first offender; a second offence resulted in “no landing.” There
was no appeal.
The muddy, tired, ever-hungry throng that returned some three hours later again
passed on board under this lynx-eyed surveillance. This time illicit “stodge” was
the subject of Harker’s unquenchable suspicions.
Smuggling stodge on board (another of the seven deadly sins) required
considerable ingenuity, owing to the ban the authorities thought necessary to
impose on pockets. Regular outfitters pandered to this Olympian whim, and
constructed trousers with an embryonic fob just large enough to hold a few coins.
The unorthodox, who arrived with garments bearing the stamp of provincialism
and pockets, were bidden to surrender them forthwith, and stout fingers ruthlessly
sewed the pockets up.
The jacket had only one, a breast pocket already congested by keys,
handkerchief, letters from home, pet bits of indiarubber, and the like. Remained
therefore the despised garment already alluded to. This, being tucked—by official
decree—into the wearer’s socks, formed an admirable hold-all for a packet of
butterscotch—worked flat—a snack of Turkish Delight, or a peculiar and highly
favoured form of delicacy known as “My Queen.”
With a not too saintly expression, an unflinching eye, and a sufficiently baggy
pair of trousers, the contrabandist might count on a reasonable amount of success.
But Harker’s X-ray glance rarely failed him.
That stern, incisive voice would rivet all eyes upon the culprit just when the
muster by the officer of the day had been completed, and the long ranks awaited
the stentorian dismissal of the chief cadet captain.
“Mr. Z! You’ll step along to the sick-bay when we falls out.”
The blanched smuggler clutched at his momentarily abandoned halo of
rectitude.
“Sick-bay!” he echoed indignantly. “Why the sick-bay? There’s nothing wrong
with me—I swear there isn’t. I never felt better in my life.”
“That there nasty swelling on your shin,” was the pitiless reply, “did ought to be
seen to at once.” A draught, that had fluttered the carefully selected baggy trousers
against their wearer’s legs, had been his undoing. The game was up.
Like all truly great men, Harker could unbend without discipline suffering an
iota. As the months passed and his term of fledgling “News” acquired the modest
dignity of “Threes” (second term cadets), Marker’s methods changed. He was no
longer the detective, inquisitor, encyclopædia of a thousand unfamiliar phrases,
events, and objects. His term were on their feet now, treading in their turn paths
fiercely illumined by the new first term’s gaping admiration and curiosity. They
were an example.
“ ’Ow long ’ave we been in the Britannia?” he would demand reproachfully
when some breach of the laws called for reproof. “ ’Ere we are in our second term,
an’ talkin’ about HUP-STAIRS!”
The scorn in his voice was like a whiplash.
“When you young gentlemen goes to sea you won’t find no STAIRS!”
When they went to sea! That was the gradually increasing burden of his song.
For a while it presented a picture too remote almost for serious contemplation. It
was practically a figure of speech, meaningless. But as time went on, and the
successive dignities of “Sixer” and “Niner” (third and fourth—the last—terms)
loomed up and passed into reality, and at last the Great Wall of the final
examination alone stood between them and the sea-going gunrooms of the Fleet,
the words took on their real significance.
Harker abandoned even sarcasm. He became guide, philosopher, and friend, a
patient mentor always accessible—generally somewhere on the chest-deck—in
leisure hours to thirsters after knowledge. Was one shaky in that branch of nautical
lore known as “Bends and Hitches”? Harker’s blunt fingers tirelessly manipulated
the end of a hammock-lashing until the pupil could make even a “sheep-shank”
with his eyes shut.
Another would bring him, in a welter of grease and ravelled strands, a tortured
mass of hemp-rope.
“It’s meant to be a Long Splice,” was the explanation, “but I don’t seem to get it
right—ever,” and with a despondent sigh it would be thrust into Harker’s hands.
Harker would examine the interwoven strands, twisting it to and fro with jerks
of his powerful wrists, pulling taut here, tucking something in there, and lo! the
thing took shape.
“This is where you goes wrong, Mr. P., every time!” (Recollect there were
sixty-odd in his term.) “Don’t forget what I’m always telling you. You splits the
middle strands, and then an over-’and knot in the opposite ’alves....” It always
looked so easy when Harker did it.
It was during the last night on board that Harker rose to heights truly
magnanimous. The fourth term regarded it as its right and privilege, on the last
night of the term, to hold high carnival until sleep overtook them. Cadet captains
even cast their responsibilities to the winds that night and scampered about, slim,
pyjama-clad figures, in the dim light of the lanterns, ruthlessly cutting down the
prig who yearned for slumber, lashing-up a victim in his hammock and leaving him
upside-down to reflect on certain deeds of the past year that earned him this
retribution, floating about on gratings on the surface of the plunge baths, and
generally celebrating in a fitting manner the eve of the day that was to herald in
new responsibilities and cares.
Harker, who for fifteen months had haunted the shadows on the look-out for
just such a “rux,” whose ear caught every illicit sound—even the crunch of the
nocturnal butterscotch—Harker was for once unseeing and unseen. It needed but
this crowning act of grace to endear him for ever to his departing flock.
Yet he had one more card to play, and played it as he passed in farewell from
carriage to carriage of the departing train. Further, he dealt it with accentuated
emphasis for the benefit of those he thought needed the reminder most.
“Gosh!” ejaculated such a one when Harker passed to the next carriage: he
flopped back on to his seat. “Did you hear? He said ‘sir!’ to each one of us when he
said good-bye!”
So much for Harker. But he brought with him a number of other memories
entangled somehow about his personality, and on these it may be as well to enlarge
a little ere they slip back into the limbo of the forgotten past.
It says much for the vividness of Harker’s personality that he outran in these
reminiscences the memory of “Stodge.” Certainly few interests loomed larger on
the horizon of these days than the contents of the two canteens ashore.
There was one adjacent to the landing-place: a wise forethought of the
authorities, enabling a fellow to stay his stomach during the long climb from the
river to the playing fields, where the principal canteen stood.
“Stodge” was of a surpassing cheapness. That much was essential when the
extent of the weekly pocket-money was limited (if memory is to be trusted) to one
shilling. Further it was of a pleasing variety, certain peculiar combinations,
hallowed by tradition, being alone unchanging.
Of these the most popular was the “Garry Sandwich.” Components: a half-stick
of chocolate cream sandwiched between two “squashed-fly” biscuits; the whole
beaten thin with a cricket-bat, gymnasium shoe, or other implement handy. The
peculiarity of this particular form of dainty was that it sufficed as an unfailing bribe
wherewith to open negotiations with one Dunn, the septuagenarian keeper of the
pleasure boats. The moral atmosphere of the boat-house, in consequence of its
custodian’s sweetness of tooth, came in time to resemble that of a Chinese yamen.
Another delicacy about which legend clustered was the “Ship’s Bun,” split in
half, with a liberal cementing of Devonshire cream and strawberry jam oozing out
at the sides. Concerning the bun itself, the maternal solicitude of the authorities
extended one gratis to each cadet ashore on half-holidays lest the impecunious
should hunger unnecessarily between lunch and tea. The buns were obtainable on
application at the counter, whence the daughter of the proprietor—whom we will
call Maunder—was charged with the duty of issuing them.
How she pretended to remember the two and a half hundred faces that presented
themselves in surging crowds round the counter at 4 p.m. is more than her present
recorder can say. But even as she extended a bun to the outstretched grubby hand
of a suppliant, an expression of vixen-like indignation and cunning would
transform her features.
“You’ve ’ad a bun afore!” she would snap shrilly, withdrawing the bounty in the
nick of time. The hungry petitioner, cheerfully acknowledging defeat in a game of
bluff, would then withdraw, pursued by Miss Maunder’s invective.
All the same she was not infallible, and on occasions hot protestations and even
mutual recrimination rang to and fro across the counter. Appeal, ultimately carried
to Mr. Maunder, was treated in much the same way as it is by croupiers at Monte
Carlo. A gentleman’s word is his word. But it is as well not to be the victim of too
many mistakes.
Maunder, who was occupied with the stern responsibility of catering for the
whim of the rich, had a way of recapitulating the orders from the beginning, adding
up aloud as the count went on, thus:
Cadet: A strawberry ice, please, Maunder.
Maunder: One strawberry ice tuppence.
Cadet: Oh, and a doughnut, while you’re about it.
Maunder: One strawberry ice one doughnut thruppence.
Cadet: That’s just to go on with. Then in a bag I want a stick of cream chocolate
——
Maunder: One strawberry ice one doughnut one stick cream chocolate
fourpence.
Cadet: (breathlessly) And a bottle of barley sugar and a “My Queen” and four
Garry biscuits and half a pound of cherries and a bottle of lemonade and one of
ginger beer and—that’s all, I think.
Maunder: (coming in a little behind, chanting, the general effect being that of a
duet in canon). One strawberry ice one doughnut one stick cream chocolate one
bottle barley sugar one “My Queen,” etc., etc., etc.... And a bag one an thruppence
’a’-penny.... Thank you, sir. Next, please.
On occasion demigods walked among the children of men. The visits of the
Channel Fleet to Torbay usually brought over one or two of a lately departed term,
now midshipmen by the grace of God and magnificent beyond conception.
It was their pleasure, these immaculately clad visitors, to enter the canteen,
greet Maunder with easy familiarity and Miss Maunder with something
approaching gallantry, slap down a sovereign on the counter and cry free stodge all
round. They would even unbend further, dallying with a strawberry ice in token of
their willingness to be as other men, and finally depart in a cloud of cigarette
smoke and hero-worship.
This record is not concerned with the fact that on their return on board their
ship, some hours later, one suffered stripes for having forgotten to lock his chest
before he went ashore, and the other, being the most junior of all the junior
midshipmen, was bidden swiftly to unlace the sub’s boots and fetch his slippers.
To every dog his day.
Random memories such as these necessarily present individuals and incidents,

not in the sequence of their importance in the cosmos as one sees it now, but as
they appeared to the vision of the Naval Cadet, whose world was an amiable
Chaos.
Thus the Captain flickers through this kaleidoscope an awesome bearded figure,
infinitely remote from the small affairs of that teeming rabbit-warren of youth.
More readily comes to mind the picture of his lady wife, white-haired, with clear
eyes and gentle voice, a memory somehow entangled with geraniums in red pots
about the moulded stern-gallery and tea on Sunday afternoons in the spacious
chintz-draped after-cabin: with irksome football sprains, and brief puerile illnesses
made more endurable by her visits to the cotside.
The Commander, though less awesome than the Captain, approached the mortal
in that he stooped at times to wrath. His was the cold eye before which the more
hardened malefactors quailed; his the rasping voice that jerked the four terms to
attention at Divisions each morning:
“Young Gentlemen, ’shun!”
The English public schoolboy is conscious of youth, and takes the fact of being
a gentleman for granted. But to hear himself addressed by a designation that
combined both qualities was a never-staling subject for inward mirth and a weird
self-congratulation difficult of analysis. It conveyed a hint of coming manhood and
responsibilities: it was the voice of the Navy, bending on the leading strings, heard
for the first time.
But on a plane far nearer earth stood the Term Lieutenants, each one the god
and hero, the Big Brother of his term. That they, their Boxer or South African
medal ribbons, their tattoo-marks, County or International caps, biceps, and all the
things that were theirs, were the objects of their respective Terms’ slavish
adulation, goes without saying. Bloody encounters between their self-appointed
champions over an adverse criticism or doubt cast upon a forgotten word were not
unknown. Two entire terms once joined battle and bled each other’s noses the
length and breadth of the echoing “Skipper Woods” to clinch some far-flung
argument as to the merits of their respective “Loots.”
There were but four Term Lieutenants, and they were picked from the
wardrooms of the whole Navy. Small wonder some three hundred grubby urchins
fresh from school found in them admirable qualities.
Their example and teaching were the moulds into which, year by year, the
molten metal of the Navy’s officer-personnel was poured, thence to be scattered
about the seven seas, tempered by winds and stress, and, in God’s good time, tested
to the uttermost.
Ashore, on the playing fields or across the red ploughland at the tails of the
beagles, they laboured in close intimate fellowship with these atoms of clay thrust
by providence beneath their thumbs. But on board it seemed they faded from ken,
being rarely seen save at classes and musters, or when in pairs the Term percolated
through the wardroom for dessert, plastered as to the hair, patent leather shod, to
sip and cough over a glass of ambrosial port at either elbow of their Lieutenant.
Seeing and unseen, knowing their Terms as only men who spend their lives
among men can know and understand the embryo, they were the guiding invisible
wisdom behind the Cadet Captains, who outwardly ruled the decks.
The Cadet Captains were chosen from the three senior Terms, set apart from
their fellows by the fact that they wore “standup” collars and a triangular gold
badge on the left cuff.
Minor Authority in other guises was greeted much the same as it is in all
communities of boyhood. The platitudes of notice boards no fellow with his heart
in the right place could be expected to remember over well. The acknowledged
sway of instructors and masters was largely a matter of knowing to a nicety how
far an adventurous spirit could go (in the realms of Science and Freehand Drawing
it was a long way) before the badgered pedagogue turned and bit. Terms paid strict
allegiance to their own Chief Petty Officers. But, as has already been shown, this
was an affair of the heart and the sentiments. He was theirs, and they were his: thus
it had been from the beginning.
There was, however, one voice that rarely repeated an order, one court from
which appeal, if possible, was undreamed of—that of the Cadet Captain. Their rule
was without vexatious tyranny, but it was an iron rule. The selection of these Cadet
Captains was done carefully, and mistakes were few. The standard of the whole
was no mean one, and for three months the Lieutenant of the First Term had been
studying the raw material, working with it, playing with it, talking to it—or rather
listening while it talked to him.... Thus Cadet Captains were chosen, and the queer
eager loyalty with which the rest paid them allegiance was the first stirring of the
quickened Naval Spirit, foreshadowing that strange fellowship to be, brotherhood
of discipline and control, of austerity and a half-mocking affectionate tolerance.
To the Cadet Captains perhaps can be attributed the passage, almost untarnished
through the years, of the Britannia traditions. They were concerned, these youthful
Justices of the Peace, with more than the written law. It they enforced right enough,
but with a tolerance one might expect of fifteen summers administering the foibles
and rules of fifty. On the other hand, did a “new” unbutton a single button of his
monkey jacket, a “Three” deign to swing his keys, a “Sixer” to turn up his trousers
or tilt his cap on the back of his head (the prerogative of the “Niner” or Fourth
Term), and Nemesis descended upon him ere he slept that night. Nemesis, by virtue
of its unblemished character and the favour its triangular badge found in the eyes
of the gods, was allowed to turn in half an hour after the remainder. It occupied
itself during this time in guzzling cocoa and biscuits smeared with strawberry jam,
provided for its delectation by the authorities—though the cost was said to be
defrayed by the parents of the common herd relegated to hammocks and the
contemplation of this orgy out of one drowsy though envious eye.
Biscuits finished, Nemesis would draw from his pocket a knotted “togie” of
hemp, and, having removed traces of jam from his features, proceed to administer
summary justice in the gloom where the hammocks swung.
It was of course grossly illegal and stigmatised by the authorities as “a
pernicious system of private and unauthorised punishments.” But the alternative
was open to any who cared to appeal to Cæsar. Appealing to Cæsar meant spending
subsequent golden afternoons on the parade ground, swinging a heavy bar bell to
the time of “Sweet Dreamland Faces” blared out on a cornet by a bored bandsman.
So summary justice ruled, and it ruled in this wise:
“Shove your knuckles outside that blanket—you needn’t pretend to be asleep
——”
Chorus of snores deafening in their realism and self-conscious rectitude from
the wrong-doer’s neighbours.
“You were slack attending belly-muster for the third time running——”[1]
“I swear——”
“You’d better not. You’ll get six more for swearing——”
“Ow!”
“Don’t make such a rux....”
“Ow!”
“If you yell you’ll get double.”
“Ow!”
“That’s for being slack. Now the other hand.... That’s for ’nerving’ ”
(modernised = swanking) “with your thumbs in your beckets——”
“Ow!”
“Shut up! Stick your knuckles out properly.”
“I swear I didn’t—ow!... Good night.”
. . . . .
Memories, ah, memories! Haphazard but happy as only the far-off things can
seem, half revealed through the mists of years. Grim old cradle of the Eternal
Navy, there lies on my desk a blotting-pad hewed from your salt timbers; it may be
that some whimsical ghost strayed out of it to provoke these random recollections.
Does it, I wonder, ever unite with other ghosts from chiselled garden-seat or carved
candle-stick, and there on the moonlit waters of the Dart refashion, rib by rib, keel
and strake and stempost, a Shadow Ship?
And what of the Longshoremen Billies that plied for hire between the shore and
the after-gangway—Johnnie Farr (whom the Good Lawd durstn’t love), Hannaford
of the wooden leg, and all the rest of that shell-backed fraternity? Gone to the
haven of all good ships and sailormen: and only the night wind, abroad beneath the
stars, whispers to the quiet hills the tales of sharks and pirates and the Chiny seas
that once were yours and ours.
But what familiar faces throng once more the old decks and cluster round the
empty ports! Is it only to fond memory that you seemed the cheeriest and noblest,
or did some beam of the glory to be yours stray out of the Hereafter and paint your
boyish faces thus, O best-remembered from those far-off days?
You crowd too quickly now, you whose fair names are legion, so that the
splendour of your sacrifices blur and intermingle. The North Sea knows you and
the hidden Belgian minefields; the Aurora Borealis was the candle that lit some to
bed, and the surf on the beaches of Gallipoli murmurs to others a never-ending
lullaby. Ostend and Zeebrugge will not forget you, and the countless tales of your
passing shall be the sword hilt on which our children’s children shall cut their teeth.
From out of that Shadow Ship lying at her moorings off the old Mill Creek
comes the faint echoes of your boyish voices floating out across the placid tide.
Could we but listen hard enough we might catch some message of good hope and
encouragement from you who have had your Day:
“We are the Dead....

. . . . .
To you from failing hands we throw
The torch; be yours to hold it high:
If ye break faith with us who die,
We shall not sleep....”
There shall be no faith broken. God rest you, merry Gentlemen.

CHAPTER II
IN THE TWILIGHT
I. Heavy Metal
It was still dark when the battle cruisers slipped from their moorings and began to
feel their way towards the unseen entrance of the harbour. From the bridge of each
mass of towering indeterminate shadows the stern light of the next ahead could be
discerned dimly through binoculars, and on those pin-points of light they steered.
What the battle cruiser flagship steered by, in the narrow confines of the crowded
harbour and the inky darkness, only the little knot of figures on her forebridge
knew: the admiral and flag captain, the navigator and officer-of-the-watch, muffled
in duffle coats and moving mysteriously about the glow-worm arc of light from the
binnacle and charttable.
One by one the long black shapes slid through the outer defences, ebon
shadows in a world of shades. The voices of the leadsmen in the chains blended
their mournful intermittent chant with the rush of water past the ship’s side; to all
but the ears of the watchful figures on the bridges the sound was swallowed by the
dirge of the funnel stays and halliards in the cold wind heralding the dawn.
The red and green lights on the gate-marking vessels winked and bobbed in the
swell caused by the passage of the grim host. It passed with incredible swiftness;
and before the troubled waters began to quiet, the escorting destroyers came pelting
up astern, heralded by the rush and rattle of spray-thrashed steel, funnels glowing,
and the roar of their fans pouring out from the engine-room exhausts. Night and the
mystery of the darkness enfolded them. The gates closed upon their churning
wakes and the tumult of their passing. Dawn glimmered pale behind the hills and
broadened slowly into day; it found the harbour empty, save for small craft.
Beyond the headlands, beyond the mist-enshrouded horizon, the battle cruisers
were abroad, unleashed.
Once clear of their protecting minefields, the battle cruisers moved south at
high speed, with their smoke trailing astern in broad zig-zags across a grey sky. At
intervals they altered course simultaneously and then swung back to their original
path, flinging the grey seas asunder from each gaunt, axe-headed bow as they
turned.
They scarcely resembled ships, in their remorseless, purposeful rush under the
lowering sky. The screening T.B.D.’s spread fan-wise on their flanks were dwarfed
to insignificance beside these stupendous destroyers with the smoke pouring from
their huge funnels, and nothing to break their stark nakedness of outline but the
hooded guns. Men lived on board them, it is true: under each White Ensign a
thousand souls laboured out each one its insignificant destiny. They were entities
invisible like mites in a cheese; but the ships that bore them were instruments,
visible enough, of the triumphant destiny of an empire.
As far as the eye could reach, the battle cruisers were alone on that grey waste
of water. But swift as was their passage, something swifter overtook them out of
the north as the morning wore on. It was the voice of the battle fleet moving south
in support. “Speed so-and-so, on such-and-such a course,” flickered the curt cipher
messages through sixty miles of space. And south they came in battle array,
battleships, light cruisers, and destroyers, ringed by the misty horizon of the North
Sea, with the calling gulls following the white furrows of their keels like crows
after the plough.
A division of light cruisers, driving through the crested seas at the speed of a
galloping horse, linked the battle fleet with the battle cruisers. Seen from either
force they were but wraiths of smoke on the horizon: but ever and anon a daylight
searchlight winked out of the mist, spanning the leagues with soundless talk.
It was still early afternoon when a trail of bubbles flickered ahead of the
flagship of the battle fleet’s lee line. It crossed at right angles to their course, and a
thousand yards abeam of the third ship in the line something silvery broke the
surface in a cloud of spray. It was a torpedo that had run its course and had missed
the mark. Simultaneously, one of the escorting destroyers, a mile abeam, turned
like a mongoose on a snake, and circled questing for a couple of minutes. Then
suddenly a column of water leaped into the air astern of the destroyer, and the
sound of the explosion was engulfed by the great loneliness of sea and sky. She
remained circling while the battle fleet swept on with swift, bewildering alterations
of course, and later another far-off explosion overtook them.
“Strong smell of oil; air bubbles. No wreckage visible. Consider enemy
submarine sunk. No survivors,” blinked the laconic searchlight, and the avenger,
belching smoke from four raking funnels, came racing up to her appointed station.
As the afternoon wore on, a neutral passenger ship crossed the path of the fleet.
She was steering a westerly course, and altered to pass astern of the battle cruisers.
The captain wiped his glasses and handed them to one of the passengers, an
amiable merchant of the same nationality as himself, and a self-confessed admirer
of all things British.
“Ha!” said the captain. “You see? The clenched fist of Britain! It is being
pushed under the nose of Germany—so!” He laughingly extended a gnarled fist in
the other’s face. The merchant was a frequent passenger of his, and the sort of man
(by reason of his aforesaid proclivities) to appreciate the jest. The merchant
stepped back a pace rather hurriedly: then he laughed loudly. “Exactly!” he said,
“very neat, my friend.” And borrowing his friend’s glasses he studied the far-off
tendrils of smoke in silence awhile.
A quarter of an hour later, a light cruiser altered course from the fleet in the
direction of the neutral steamer. Then it was that the amiable merchant was struck
by a sudden recollection. It was a matter of considerable urgency and concerned an
order for a large number of bolts of calico and a customer’s credit. So pressing was
the business that he obtained the captain’s permission to send a radio telegram to
his firm while the approaching cruiser was still some miles away.
The message was duly dispatched, and, with surprising rapidity, by methods
with which this narrative is not concerned (of which, indeed, the narrator is entirely
ignorant), reached Wilhelmshaven by nightfall. Here four German battle cruisers
were raising steam preparatory to carrying out a bombardment at dawn of a
populous English watering-place. The message that reached them had, however,
nothing to do with calico or credit, but it bade them draw fires and give the usual
leave to officers and men; orders for the bombardment were cancelled. The
German battle cruisers were not unaccustomed to rapid changes of programme of
this sort, and they asked no questions.
At nine o’clock the following morning, a British taxpayer sat down to breakfast
in a house commanding a fine view of the sea from the popular watering-place
already mentioned. It was a large house, and incidentally offered an admirable
target from the sea. The taxpayer unfolded his morning paper, and took a sip of his
tea. Then he put the cup down quickly. “You’ve forgotten the sugar,” he said.
“No, dear,” replied his wife, “I haven’t forgotten it, but there isn’t any.”
“Eh,” said the taxpayer, “why not? why the devil isn’t there any sugar?”
The taxpayer’s wife advanced a number of popular theories to account for the
phenomenon, while the taxpayer gloomily stirred his unsweetened tea.
“Then all I should like to know,” he replied, when she had finished, “is, what
the blazes is our Navy doing?”
“I don’t know, dear,” said the taxpayer’s wife.
II. A Striking Force

Daybreak, drawing back the dark shroud of night from the face of the North
Sea, disclosed a British minelaying submarine making her way homeward on the
surface. To the two oilskin-clad figures on the conning tower, chilled and streaming
wet in the cheerless dawn, it also betrayed feathers of smoke above the horizon
astern. The submarine promptly dived to investigate at closer quarters, and was
rewarded by the spectacle of a German cruiser squadron, screened by destroyers,
steering a northwesterly course at high speed.
The submarine did not attempt to attack with her torpedoes. She retired instead
to where the sand-fog stirs in an endless groundswell, and the North Sea cod hover
about the wrecks of neutral merchantmen. In these unlit depths she lay for an hour,
listening to the chunk of many propellers pass overhead and die away. She knew
nothing of the mysterious chain of events which sent those cruisers venturing
beyond the protection of the far-reaching German minefields. She was as ignorant
of popular clamour in Germany for spectacular naval activity as she was of the
presence of a large convoy of laden freighters a hundred miles away to the
northward, escorted by destroyers and making for a British port. These matters
were not her “pidgin.” On the other hand, having once sighted the German cruisers,
she became very much concerned with getting the information through to quarters
where it would be appreciated. Accordingly, when the last of the water-borne
sounds ceased, the submarine rose to the surface, projected a tiny wireless mast
above the wave-tops, and sent out the Call rippling through space.
It was addressed to a certain light cruiser squadron, lying at its buoys with the
needles of the pressure gauges flickering and the shells fused in the racks beside
each gun, waiting day and night in much the tense preparedness with which the fire
brigade waits.
Within two hours the light cruisers were out, ribands of foam and smoke
unreeling astern of them, with their attendant destroyers bucketing and plunging on
either side of them, flinging the spray abroad in the greeting of a steep easterly
swell. The last destroyer swung into station ere the line of minesweepers, crawling
patiently to and fro about the harbour approaches, were blotted from view in their
smoke astern. Presently the harbour itself faded out of sight; in lodging, cottage,
and villa the women glanced at the clocks as the ships went out, and then turned to
their morning tasks and the counting of the slow hours....
East into the sunlight went the slim grey cruisers, and then north, threading their
swift way through the half-known menace of the minefields, altering course from
time to time to give a wide berth to the horned Death that floated awash among the
waves. At intervals the yard-arm of the leading light cruiser would be flecked with
colour as a signal bellied out against the wind, and each time speed was increased.
Faster and faster they rushed through the yellowish seas, fans and turbines
humming their song of speed, and the wind in the shrouds chiming in on a higher
note as if from an æolian harp.
The spray rattled like hail against the sloping gun-shields and splinter-mats,
behind which men stood huddled in little clusters or leaned peering ahead through
glasses; cinders from the smoke of the next ahead collected in little whorls and
eddies or crunched underfoot about the decks; the guns’ crews jested among
themselves in low voices, while the sight-setters adjusted their head-pieces and the
layer of each slim gun fussed lovingly about the glittering breech mechanism with
a handful of waste....
Then suddenly, above the thunder of the waves and singing of the wind, a clear
hail floated aft from a look-out. Bare feet thudded on the planking of the signal
bridge, bunting whirled amid the funnel smoke, and the hum of men’s voices along
the stripped decks deepened into a growl.
“Smoke on the port bow!”
A daylight searchlight chattered suspiciously—paused—flashed a blinding
question, and was silent.
Orders droned down the voice-pipes. Somewhere a man laughed—a sudden
savage laugh of exultation, that broke a tension none were aware of till that
moment. Then a fire-gong jarred: the muzzle of the foremost gun suddenly vomited
a spurt of flame, and as the wind whipped the yellow smoke into tatters, the
remaining light cruisers opened fire.
Bang!... bang!... bang!... bang!... bang!
On the misty horizon there were answering flashes, and a moment later came a
succession of sounds as of a child beating a tray. The light cruisers wheeled to the
eastward amid scattered columns of foam from falling shells, and as they turned to
cut off the enemy from his base the destroyers went past, their bows buried in
spray, smoke swallowing the frayed white ensigns fluttering aft. In a minute they
had vanished in smoke, out of which guns spat viciously, leaving a tangle of little
creaming wakes to mark the path of their headlong onslaught.
Neck and neck raced the retreating raiders and the avenging Nemesis from the
east coast of Britain. Ahead lay the German minefields and German submarines
and the tardy support of the German High Seas Fleet. Somewhere far astern a
huddle of nervous merchantmen were being hustled westward by their escort, and
midway between the two the hostile destroyer flotillas fought in a desperate death-
grapple under the misty blue sky.
When at length the British light cruisers hauled off and ceased fire on the fringe
of the German minefields, the enemy were hull down over the horizon, leaving two
destroyers sinking amid a swirl of oil and wreckage, and a cruiser on her beam
ends ablaze from bow to stern. The sea was dotted with specks of forlorn humanity
clinging to spars and rafts. Boats from the British destroyers plied to and fro among
them, bent on the quixotic old-fashioned task of succouring a beaten foe. Those not
actively engaged in this work of mercy circled round at high speed to fend off
submarine attack; the light cruisers stayed by to discourage the advances of a pair
of Zeppelins which arrived from the eastward in time to drop bombs on the would-
be rescuers of their gasping countrymen.
The bowman of a destroyer’s whaler disengaged his boathook from the
garments of a water-logged Teuton, grasped his late enemy by the collar and hauled
him spluttering into the boat with a single powerful heave of his right arm.
All about them cutters and whalers rising and falling on the swell were quickly
being laden to the gunwales with scalded, bleeding, half-drowned prisoners. A
midshipman in the stern of a cutter was waving a bedraggled German ensign and
half-tearfully entreating his crew to stop gaping at the Zeppelins and attend to
orders. The barking of the light cruisers’ high-angle guns was punctuated by the
whinny of falling bombs and pieces of shrapnel that whipped the surface of the sea
into spurts of foam. In the background the sinking cruiser blazed sullenly, the shells
in her magazine exploding like gigantic Chinese crackers.
In the bows of the whaler referred to above the able seaman with the boathook
sat regarding the captive of his bow and spear (or rather, boathook). “ ’Ere,
Tirpitz!” he said, and removing his cap he produced the stump of a partly smoked
cigarette. The captive took it with a watery smile and pawed his rescuer’s trousers.
“Kamarad!” he said.
“Not ’arf!” said his captor appreciatively. “Not ’arf you ain’t, you—— —— son
of a—— ——!”
The second bow, labouring at his oar, looked back over his shoulder.
“ ’Ush!” he said reprovingly. “ ’E can’t understand. Wot’s the use o’ wastin’
that on ’im?” He spat contemptuously over the gunwale.

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Commentary on the Gospels Fortunatianus Of Aquileia

Annex 17 to the Convention on International Civil

From: Schlechtriem & Schwenzer: Commentary on the UN Convention on

Previous Edition (3 ed.)

Content type: Book content

From: Schlechtriem & Schwenzer: Commentary on the UN Convention on

Previous Edition (3 ed.)

Content type: Book content

List of Contributors xii

List of Abbreviations xiii

Table of Cases xxxv

United Nations Convention on Contracts for the International Sale of Goods

Part I: Sphere of Application and General Provisions 17

Chapter I: Sphere of Application 17

Part II: Formation of the Contract 223

Chapter I: General Provisions 416

Part IV: Final Provisions 1240

United Nations Convention on the Limitation Period in the International Sale of

Appendix I: Incoterms® 2010 1343

From: Schlechtriem & Schwenzer: Commentary on the UN Convention on

Previous Edition (3 ed.)

Content type: Book content

List of Contributors xii

List of Abbreviations (Schwenzer) xiii

Table of Cases (Schwenzer) xxxv

United Nations Convention on Contracts for the International Sale of Goods

Preamble (Schwenzer ⁄ Hachem) 13

Part I. Sphere of Application and General Provisions 17

Chapter I. Sphere of Application 17

Chapter II. General Provisions 119

Part II. Formation of the Contract 223

Chapter I. General Provisions 416

Chapter II. Obligations of the Seller 514

Section I. Delivery of the goods and handing over of documents 520

Section III. Remedies for breach of contract by the seller 720

Chapter III. Obligations of the Buyer 821

Section I. Payment of the price 840

Section II. Taking delivery 891

Section III. Remedies for breach of contract by the buyer 898

Chapter IV. Passing of Risk 950

Chapter V. Provisions Common to the Obligations of the Seller and

Section II. Damages 1057

Section III. Interest 1111

Section V. Effects of avoidance 1163

Section VI. Preservation of the goods 1216

Part IV. Final Provisions 1240

United Nations Convention on the Limitation Period in the International Sale of

Introduction (Müller-Chen) 1288

Preamble (Müller-Chen) 1289

Part I. Substantive Provisions 1290

Cessation and Extension of the Limitation Period 1307

Part II. Implementation 1332

Part IV. Final Clauses 1337

Appendix I: Incoterms® 2010 (Schwenzer) 1343

Bibliography (Schwenzer) 1419